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I really grinded the cash games this month. I don't think that I have ever played more than 25k hands in a month and I usually average between 15k-20k hands/month. I managed to get in just over 50k hands this month thanks to being a little slow at work (not working any late nights) and six tabling some towards the end of the month. There were some huge swings due to a some suckouts, coolers, and the occasional spew.

I only played four tourneys (Blogger big game, 1 FTOPS sat, and 2 PCA sub-sats) this month and don't really miss them. They are fun, but I have been in cash game mode and haven't had the desire to play a bunch of mtts.

I am going to try to grind the cash games again in November and maybe buy a bigger monitor. Playing six tables on a 17" laptop screen while sitting in the recliner, watching TV, and talking to my wife is probably not the best thing for my win rate. I am sure that I will get in a lot less hands, but hopefully they will be a lot more productive.

Any recommendations on a monitor? I am thinking about the Samsung 24" widescreen. The 30" widescreen is probably too big for my needs. Anyone have a Samsung 24" or 30" WS monitor? Thoughts?

Graph for the month

(1st 18k hands are 1/2, rest is 2/4)

Tough Turn Decision

I posted this on the cardrunners message boards and got some decent feedback. I would be interested in a few more opinions.

Villain (20 VP$IP/13 PFR%/2 TAF) had been calling a lot of my button raises from the SB. I had raised his BB from the button earlier on another table with KK and he flat called preflop with AA. The flop came King high and we got all the money in. He seems to be a little frustrated with my button raises but usually likes to c/r the flop with a big hand (sometimes with air) instead of 3 betting preflop.

Maybe six tabling isn't for me. I played a ton of hands this week - more hands than I have played some months. I didn't play any tourneys and played six tables most of the time.

My graph for the week looks ridiculous - thanks to some suckouts, coolers, lost coinflips, running KK into AA a few times, etc, etc, waaah, waaaah, waaaaaah. I think that I had Fuel type luck for most of the week.

The good news is that I managed to be profitable for the week. The bad news is that I played a ton of hands and had an eleven buy-in downswing in the middle there. I wish that I would have quit for the week at 8k hands. :)

I checked through my hands and there was only a little bit of spewing on my part. One example is getting all in preflop once with 99 vs. KK in button vs. blind battle. My button raises were getting 4 bet a lot and he happened to have a hand this time.

I am probably going to play less hands this week and will probably switch back to 4 tabling most of the time. Six tabling takes a high level of concentration that I sometimes lack.

The four biggest losing hands of the week

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1640813 - I should have raised the flop more but I felt like getting a little tricky against this particular player. I check raised the turn hoping he had a hand like AsAx or KsKx. Unfortunately, he had the nut flush. I needed the board to pair and it didn't .

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1640827 - Another KK vs. AA. I'm not getting away from this hand against this guy. We had been 3 betting and 4 betting each other quite a bit. I guess I could have shoved preflop, but the result would have been the same.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1640845 - I raised with suited connectors preflop and then got priced in against two big hands. The flop couldn't have been much better and the turn was the perfect card. I'm not going to worry about being up against AA.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1640850 - Slow playing is bad. I was surprised he shoved the river on me. I was really expecting to see at least a full house - hopefully one that I beat. He is a good player and said that he was playing so many tables that he completely misses the fact that the board paired. Lucky me.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1640857 - This guy had trouble folding hands. I felt like I could get the most value by slow playing the 2nd nuts on the turn. We had been in a lot of blind vs. blind and button vs. SB confrontations and I felt like he was getting frustrated with me. I also had made a river bluff at this table a few hands earlier that was picked off. I guess paid off because of my table image combined with our history.

A couple of fun (maybe interesting) handshttp://www.pokerhand.org/?1640864 - Villain was 33/24 and flat calling flop raises/shoving the turn. I saw him do this with a mediocre hand earlier and catch. I am getting the money in all day long against this guy. I loved it when he flipped his hand up.http://www.pokerhand.org/?1640879 - This guy was calling me down light a lot. I really felt like he would think that I didn't have an Ace if I bet big and might re-raise me. He was also playing Ax hands and would probably get all his money in if he had the other Ace. A good example of a horrible image paying off.

I have had a little extra time to browse the internet this week because I am a little slow at work. I thought I would link a few interesting blogs/forum posts that I stumbled across this week.

War Crimes Blog - He has a goal of turning $40,000 into $300,000 in 18 months by playing 5/10nl and 10/20nl so that he can quit his job and become a full time player. In less than 1 month he has gone from $40k to $2,900. I feel bad for him because he truly seems like he believes that Bodog is rigged against him - pretty sad actually. The beginning of this last post:

"have cashed out totally from Bodog.com. I am fully superstitious that the site has it in for me 1 day since my large cash out on October 1st 2007. I have lost 19 days out of the last 22 days I have played on Bodog. This is "too" fishy for words right now. But the the last time I played. I played 2 hands solely the entire session to a flop."

Anyway it is worth reading. Hopefully he will get back on track.

A 2+2 anthology by Pr0crast - A guy put together a pretty detailed list of 2+2 links and organized it very well for a guy that he was coaching.

Poker Road - Joe Sebok and company's new website. This site just launched this week and looks like it has some great potential. Joe Sebok and Gavin Smith will be broadcasting their radio on the site as well as a few others - Big Poker Sundays with Haralabos Voulgaris and Scott Huff, Tips from the Bear and a couple others.

The site also hosts the blogs of Barry Greenstein (audio), Jeff Madsen, belowabove, Anna Wroblewski, Steve Sung, and Joe Sebok.

88% Concentration - An oldie but a goodie. A poker player with little to no self control. He describes his tilt session and playing with his entire roll on the table in extensive detail. The archives are especially worth the read. You will be laughing and shaking your head at the same time.

From one of his classic posts:

"before today i had £35k in littlewoods, that's still there and £41,328.40 in betfair, that isn't there. i just blew $80k+, playing loose and missing. i did $9k on first hand with 4 high, check raising with absolutely nothing on flop, turn made a flush draw which i committed myself to. so i lost $10k on $50/$100, $30k on $100/$200 and $40k+ on $250/$500, the last hand all in on 10 high flop with JJ v AA ($48k pot). no complaints just shit. very very shit. i lost a $54k pot before with AQs against 33 on 39j with 2 spades board, that was on $100/$200. 2 more hands i remember. i bluffed the pot ($10,8k) with AQo (no hearts) on j779x board, 4 hearts. he called with 98d, i don't know how he did it but it really is a fantastic call. also i raised with 46o utg (playing 4 handed on $250/$500) and re-raised in sb for the pot. i call. flop 734, he bets hard and i push, he calls and wins with A7s, i'm not 100% but i reckon that was a $50k pot."

This is the chat that followed me losing with 99 vs. 77 on a 107972 board. (see hand at bottom of post)

I really don't understand what people are thinking sometimes. I'm guessing that he didn't get enough attention as a child.raisemepuke: oopsraisemepuke: I had 7-7-7-7-lolcmitch: I had 99 - coolercmitch: methinksMjlivingston: that is a cooler manraisemepuke: +Need some KY hero<>???cmitch: but u can berate me if u like pukeraisemepuke: Na- I'll just take your $$$ boycmitch: no probraisemepuke: Wish we both had a had a few grand on the table- You would have needed an enima-lolraisemepuke: Thx for the EASY $$$ boys!!!-lolraisemepuke stands up

I was getting into some blind battles with this particular player. I overshove check raised my set on the turn because there were multiple flush draws on the board and he might call the shove with two pair or a flush draw. This was definitely not a standard play.

I was surprised to see the straight and immediately starting thinking, "Pair the board!!! Pair the board!!" The board paired - Weeeeeeeeeeee. Oh wait!! Why is the pot going to him? Ooops, the only "pair the board" card that I didn't want.

cmitch checks - This table can't resist checking on two streets.LeNewbian has 15 seconds left to actLeNewbian bets $42 - BingoFishRoller foldscmitch raises to $468.40, and is all in - Trying to represent a flush or big draw - hoping two pair or a draw calls me.

LeNewbian calls $426.40 - He called so fast that I knew I was behind.cmitch shows [5c 5d] LeNewbian shows [3s 4s] - Pair the board!! Pair the board!!

*** RIVER *** [7s 6h Kh 5s] [6s] - All right the board paired!!

cmitch shows a full house, Fives full of SixesLeNewbian shows a straight flush, Seven high - Wasn't thinking about the straight flush possibility.LeNewbian wins the pot ($975.80) with a straight flush, Seven highcmitch is sitting out

I finished 5th in the first installment of BBTwo (yeah, I'm using it - I don't care Trip). I sucked out with JJ against KK early on to build a nice stack and nothing really else exciting happened until the final table. I called a short stack's shove with 77 and he had QQ. Then I shoved with KQs and was called by 88. It would have been nice to win, but I'm happy with how I played.

-------------Cash Games

It is good to be back at my regular game. After an extended stay at 1/2nl, I made my way back to 2/4nl this week. I even got used to playing 6 tables. I started out on fire and finished up with a 3,500 hand break even stretch. I'm not going to complain about running over 9 ptbb/100 over 8k hands though.

2/4nl is 10 times more aggressive than 1/2nl. As a result, there are a lot more marginal spots and increased variance. I'm very happy with my results my first week back.

I tried out a few different things here and there and will probably tweak some aspects a little over the next few weeks. I'll keep experimenting with the things that seemed to be working and try out a few new things.

Was just hanging in #hsmtt on Sunday and JayPez was putting some dudes into the $11 100k. I was like i'll one up this dude and put a loada peeps into a $55 that was about to start. One of the guys had like a pretty solid record at the $2 multis on full tilt so I asked if he wanted to play the Sunday million. We struck a 70/30 deal and it was set.

Unfortunately all my horses bust from the $55 and I was left sweating HojoMofo in the mill... Fast forward 12 hours later and he finished 2nd for $138k. HOLLA!! I gained faith in humanity when he didn't default me on the monies as it arrived in my account this morning Shoutouts to the #HSMTT dudes, especially Hojo!

Nothing like not checking auto-fold in the BB and then getting priced in even with 47o to call. There was $30 in the pot by the time it got to me and I would close out the betting with a $5 call. I think that I am calling any time I can close out the betting and getting 6 to 1 odds with 5 cards to come.

Weeeee!!! Talk about way way ahead. I'm all-in in a 4 way pot with one card to come and only have to dodge 3 outs.

Uncalled bet of $12.70 returned to cmitch*** RIVER *** [6s 8c 5c Js] [6d]cmitch shows a straight, Eight highptb109 shows two pair, Queens and Sixescmitch wins side pot #2 ($255.40) with a straight, Eight highcolonu shows two pair, Sixes and Fourscmitch wins side pot #1 ($153.15) with a straight, Eight highmichelle2124 shows two pair, Nines and Sixescmitch wins the main pot ($190.20) with a straight, Eight highI remember Lucko saying that "is sitting out" is his favorite part of HH posts.michelle2124 is sitting outcolonu is sitting outptb109 is sitting out

I posted a funny comment that one of my opponents made the other day after I shoved the river with a flopped flush and he paid me off. Posting the comment wasn't a big deal - I didn't think twice about. I just felt like I needed to share the chat, "U play so bad it is tough for me to put u on that."

The player that made that made the comment lives a couple of doors down from Virge (btw - go check out Virge's blog) and he added the following comment on my last post:

I started to write a long post on creating long term +EV situations by making short term -EV plays. It started to get way too long and I may make a later post with some specific hand examples. For now, I'll just stick with the idea that some preflop calls OOP may appear -EV, but can be long term +EV if you make them against aggressive opponents that won't lay down a big hand against you.

cmitch posts the small blind of $1Pummer posts the big blind of $2The button is in seat #3*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to cmitch [Js 8s]DirteAA raises to $7highprices foldsdoody40 foldscmitch calls $6 (I can win the pot in a couple of ways. If I hit and he has a big hand, I will get paid off. If I miss and only get a piece of board, I may be able to get him to fold based on his af declining on each street and his high W$atSD. A high W$atSD combined with a high af is usually indicative of an aggressive player that will fold to a lot of turn and river bets. In looking back over the stats, he folds to a river bet 75% of the time.)

*** TURN *** [Ts 4s As] [Jc]cmitch checksDirteAA bets $34 (The bet here says that he may only be a little scared of the flush - maybe something like AxKs or a big hand like two pair or a set.)cmitch raises to $80 (His turn bet makes me think that he has a hand. I want to build the pot, but not chase him away. He may also shove with a pair and flush draw, two pair, or a set.)

DirteAA has 15 seconds left to actDirteAA calls $46 (He has a big hand. Please no more spades and don't pair the board.) *** RIVER *** [Ts 4s As Jc] [3c]cmitch bets $131, and is all in (I felt like I get the most value out of a shove. From his perspective, there are a lot of hands that I am shoving on the river. Any bet smaller than a shove looks 10 times stronger than a shove IMO. His call of the turn C/R and his past play make it very likely that I will get a call.)

OK - fire away. I don't play this hand this way in every situation, but I think that it was the right way to play it against this player at this particular moment in time.

-------------------This week was a roller coaster thanks to some back to back to back brutal beats. (I'm trying to stay away from bad beat posts, so I'll spare everyone the details.) This week's graph clearly shows why it is a good idea to play on a deep bankroll. I didn't get in as many hands as I wanted and wound up finishing up around $600 after being in the red for a while.

This week, I continued to play 1/2nl and will continue to play 1/2nl until I have 35-40 buy-ins for 2/4nl in my online (not just available) poker accounts. I have decided that lowering variance is the best way to steadily save for our house tear down/rebuild fund. Hopefully, I can cut down on the occasional withdrawals for unexpected life expenses/trips/etc. and build the online roll quickly. I have some targets for myself and am going to push to meet my goals.

I didn't get in as many hands as I wanted this week but still managed to come out all right.

The maniacs come out on the weekends and it seems like they flock to 1/2 in droves. This weekend was a good example of weathering the suckouts and coming out on the good side. I didn't let the beats effect me and used the poor play of my opponents to get the money back and then some.

BET tommyboy96 ($16)CALL cmitch ($16) - I call with the intention of C/R on the turn. His typical turn move after someone flat calls him is to bet pot.

TURN:

Pot: $48

BET tommyboy96 ($48) - He doesn't disappoint and bets potRAISE cmitch ($96) - I min raise for value - no joke. He isn't folding anything here and is definitely shoving or flat calling/shoving any river after I make this bet.CALL tommyboy96 ($48) - He is way too obv.